Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Cam Newton excited for fresh start at Auburn

We just finished talking with Cam Newton for the first time, and I must say that he's an engaging interview. I'll have some video up in a bit, but here's a sampling of his answers:

(Talk about Auburn)"The fans are excellent -- if I go to Walmart or I'm going to get something to eat. It's been excellent."

(Do people know you?)"It wasn't that bad. I got a couple double takes. That's about it. A lot of times, people don't say anything to me. I think I'm a friendly guy."

(You were always a quarterback?)"I started picking up the quarterback trade in high school. I've always been the defensive player, the linebacker, running back. I've always been the youngest but the biggest. When I got into high school, I was the guy who could throw it the farthest. The rest is history."

(How far could you throw?)"When you're kids playing in the background, you just tell them to keep backing up."

(Talk about competing for the starting job)"One thing about me: I don't want nothing given to me. Because first off, if something's given to you, here, you're the starter, then the respect level with your teammates, you're not going to have the same respect as if you earn everything that you get. So I want to earn, from earning Gatorade to earning the towel to earning anything. I want to earn all of my whatever. Because people are entitled to their own opinion about you. And if they see, oh, coach gave Cam the starting spot. No. They're going to say Cam earned the starting spot, and if I'm not the starter, it's because the person worked harder than me."

(Talk about your departure from Florida)"While I was at Florida, of course a lot of people think I got kicked out of Florida. I did not get kicked out of Florida. I transferred from Florida. I had a legal issue, a slip-up with the computer issue that I had bought from a person, which was stolen. That issue was taken care of way before I even left Florida. The charges were dropped and what-not. But I left Florida because I felt like the type of player I was, I didn't want to sit behind no one, because I have dreams, I have aspirations to be a starter for a Division I NCAA team, and I think while I was at Florida, I probably wasn't going to get that, with Tim Tebow at the reigns and John Brantley, me and him at the same classification, something was going to have to give. So me, making a tough decision, I decided to transfer, leaving my friends that I had close bonds with for two years. It was pretty hard. And then I ended up going to junior college in Texas. The reason I went there was because I didn't want to sit out an extra year and have three years coming out of high school that I didn't play, to come to another school when I eventually could play. So I wanted to play in junior college to sharpen up my skills and what-not, just get back to playing football, because I hadn't played in the two years I was at Florida. I mean, started a whole four quarters of football."

(Was it your slip-up or someone else's?)"It's mine. I mean, I'm a man. And if I did wrong, I'm going to say I did wrong. Knowing what I know now, would I have bought the computer? No. But being a man, you have to take full responsibility of the actions that you do. And I did. "

(What was it like going from Florida to Blinn Community College?)

"It was humbling. Take this: You got reporters asking you questions. At junior college, you could have the perfect day, you could go 20-for-20 for 500 yards passing and won't nobody know. Honestly, you don't have Gatorade in practice. You don't even have a ball boy half the time. I come from Florida, which is probably at the pinnacle of college football -- One day you're on top of the world and the next day the world could be on top of you, so to speak. Brenham, Texas, is in the middle of Houston and Austin, which is the middle of nothing. I'm from Atlanta, so I was waking up to buses and airplanes, I go to Florida and I'm waking up to the bus transit that comes around and then I come to Brenham and I'm waking up to cows. For a couple of months while I was there, I was heart-struck. At first, I thought my career as a football player was over. Luckily my determination and strong will to get better as a player and a person, God gave me a second chance to be recruited."

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